WTC Final: "Rishabh Pant has done well and he should be our first-choice keeper in England" - Wriddhiman Saha [Exclusive]

Wriddhiman Saha’s social media bio says, “What a beautiful world”. And why wouldn’t it be, if he has learnt to accept the reality - no matter how harsh it may be - and let go of the uncontrollables?

Until last year, it was an established fact in cricketing circles that Wriddhiman Saha was India’s best wicketkeeper and hence would be their first-choice on raging turners at home. 23-year-old Rishabh Pant used to keep in overseas conditions, where the ball doesn’t move much off the pitch.

In addition to his exquisite glovework, Wriddhiman Saha had experience on his side. And Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri went with that in Adelaide as the Bengal boy played in foreign conditions for the first time in almost three years.

India were terrorised in that game, as they were shot out for 36 in the second innings and eventually lost by eight wickets. Wriddhiman Saha scored 13 runs across both innings, but what hurt more was the manner in which he seemed to gift his wicket to the Aussies.

What happened next? Wriddhiman Saha was dropped. After seven Tests and two landmark series wins against Australia and England, the Adelaide debacle back in December remains his last outing for India. Rishabh Pant has earned widespread accolades for leaving an indelible mark on home conditions as well, with both the bat and the gloves.

Virat Kohli’s men will now travel to the UK for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand and a five-Test series against England. Pant, quite naturally, is touted to keep wickets unless some extraordinary circumstances arise.

Wriddhiman Saha has accepted it. In fact, the 36-year-old was magnanimous enough to concede that his almost-certain successor merits the place.

“Rishabh Pant played the last few matches of the World Test Championship, he’s done well and he should be our first-choice keeper inEngland. I would just wait, and if any opportunity arises, I will give my best. I will keep practising for that one chance,” Wriddhiman Saha said in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda.

Wriddhiman Saha hit another roadblock recently as he was down with COVID-19 for more than a fortnight, thus casting doubts on his UK sojourn. However, he has recovered and is back with his family, all set to enter the pre-departure bio-bubble in Mumbai next week.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday (May 20) announced Andhra wicketkeeper-batsman KS Bharat as the 25th member - supposedly a cover for Wriddhiman Saha. Saha, though, has been rendered flummoxed by the tag. He attributed the late addition to the cushion of having three keeper-batsmen in the ranks, particularly in times hostile enough to stop the richest franchise league in the world dead in its tracks.

“I didn’t have COVID-19 during the last series but KS Bharat was still with the team. So what do you say then? Now that I contracted the infection, people are labelling him as my ‘cover’. But I feel they have picked a third keeper bearing in mind the risk outside.

“As we saw, anybody can get the infection from anywhere and two keepers are anyway a must these days. So if one keeper falls sick by any chance, then we will be in a spot of bother. I think that’s the reason why they have decided to travel with the three of us,” Wriddhiman Saha explained.

In a bid to dissect the ‘cover’ tag, people might tend to look at Wriddhiman Saha’s recent exploits, which have been nothing to write home about, or maybe draw a conclusion regarding his current fitness level. However, he cleared the air and emphatically said he has been picked for a reason.

“If the team management didn’t have faith in me, then they wouldn’t have selected me only. But that I am on that plane is because they have some faith,” Wriddhiman Saha exclaimed.

While the Indian cricket board has given a green light to players’ families, Wriddhiman Saha would have to leave his wife and two daughters behind. Not surprisingly, he has accepted the nomadic and isolated life which comes hand in hand with the pride of representing the nation.

“Sportspersons lead this kind of life only, when they come home for a few days and again go on a long tour. But yes, I have heard that families will be allowed with us to the UK. But my younger daughter is very small and she can’t stay in an enclosed room for long, that’s why my family won’t be travelling this time around," Wriddhiman Saha said.

❤️ pic.twitter.com/6YQKvNL2bk

— Wriddhiman Saha (@Wriddhipops) May 18, 2021

He has also made peace with the fact that sport cannot take place in this pandemic-strewn world without quarantine periods. Staying cooped up in a room for a week, sometimes even two, can be excruciating. Wriddhiman Saha divides his time between catching up on web series and working on his fitness.

“Whether it is a sportsperson or not, quarantine periods have become the norm. I guess sport will go hand in hand with quarantine hereon, and we have to accept it. Yes, it is definitely not easy because during hard quarantines, you have got nothing to do but simply watch TV or catch up with friends and family online. So Netflix, Hotstar and Prime keep us going. I have a few weights at home, and when I am with the team, the common weights and equipments are rotated among the players,” Wriddhiman Saha revealed.

But in all fairness, the forthcoming self-isolation days won't hold any comparison to the 15 days of uncertainty and trauma he went through at a Delhi hotel earlier this month.

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Contact tracing of Wriddhiman Saha’s positive COVID-19 case during IPL 2021

There was a surge in COVID-19 cases within the team bubbles and among the ground staff

Wriddhiman Saha was among the six positive COVID-19 cases that rocked the IPL 2021 bio-bubbles within two days, leading to the indefinite suspension of the 14th edition of the league on May 4. For the record, numerous ground staff were also reported to have been infected.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowlers Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier tested positive on the morning of May 3, while the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) support staff duo of Mike Hussey and Lakshmipathy Balaji were confirmed to have contracted the deadly virus that evening. Delhi Capitals (DC) spinner Amit Mishra and Wriddhiman Saha’s reports came out the next morning.

But Saha started feeling the tremors on May 1, and as was reported by Sportskeeda earlier, wasn’t taken to the ground for the Rajasthan Royals (RR) match on May 2 afternoon. The SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) wicketkeeper-batsman confirmed the developments, while divulging further details.

“We had one practice session before playing the Chennai Super Kings on April 28. Then before the Rajasthan Royals game on May 2, we had two training sessions. I attended both practices and on the night of the RR game, I suddenly started feeling cold for about 20-25 minutes. Considering the situation in our country, I called my doctor the next morning and asked if I should go for breakfast.

“He asked me to stay put in my room, then I had to undergo two COVID-19 tests in two days both of which returned negative. The Rajasthan match was over by then and I didn’t travel to the ground. It was on the third day on May 3 that I reported positive,” Wriddhiman Saha, who has scored 1,987 runs at a strike rate of 131.24 in 126 IPL games, elaborated.

But the idea that a microscopic element could derail the glitzy league didn’t even cross the players’ minds, including Wriddhiman Saha and all those who were carrying the infection.

“Before me, two players each from KKR and CSK, and Amit Mishra had tested positive. But none of us anticipated the postponement of IPL 2021. In fact, I had high fever only for the first two days, then it was normal around the 98-99 mark. My health didn’t break down as such, just that my nose was blocked and I wasn’t getting any smell,” Wriddhiman Saha stated.

There could have been possible breaches of the KKR and DC bio-bubbles. Chakravarthy visited a hospital for a shoulder scan before having a meal with Warrier, who then interacted with Mishra during a training session involving players from both sides. But that wasn’t the case with Wriddhiman Saha and SRH.

Confirming none of the SRH players breached the bio-secure protocols, Wriddhiman Saha speculated he caught the virus from a third-party source. He also opened up on the different situation in the UAE, which seamlessly hosted IPL 2020 in September-November last year across three venues.

“We used the airport, landed in Delhi and even played the CSK game there. So if I had contracted the virus at the airport, the symptoms could’ve shown up before or during the CSK game itself. The day before I returned positive, two to four CSK members showed symptoms. And two days before that, we had played versus Chennai and I was present at the ground. I had interacted with a few CSK guys during practice, so I feel that could have been the source.

“When we played in the UAE last year, there used to be no one around us even during practice sessions. But here, we are sharing the space with groundsmen, people outside the ground are also peeping through the gates or over the wall. Nobody breached the bubble, so there must have been some small opening somewhere – either through the driver, the Chennai team or somebody at the ground,” Wriddhiman Saha told Sportskeeda.

Should the remaining 31 matches of IPL 2021 not take place, the BCCI will lose revenue worth almost INR 2,500 crore. While there has been an active pursuit to avert that, the board is facing challenges from its counterparts, which are understood to prioritise bilateral series over making players available for the IPL.

Wriddhiman Saha doesn’t see the season resuming, especially without the big names.

“Majority of the foreigners are from Australia, England and the West Indies. So I personally feel the resumption of the league this year is doubtful. Without the overseas players, IPL will just be a enhanced version of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy,” Wriddhiman Saha opined.

President Sourav Ganguly and Co. are scampering to find a small window to stage the second half of IPL 2021 before the T20 World Cup in October-November. While playing in England after the Test series remains the most viable option, sources tracking developments are keeping a close eye on the UAE too. What is for certain, though, is that India is out of the reckoning.

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“If the line-up is being continuously changed, no team would be able to settle down” – Wriddhiman Saha

Wriddhiman Saha played only the opening two games for SRH this season

SRH didn’t just find themselves rooted to the bottom of the points table with one win from seven games played. They also drew flak from all quarters for frequent chopping and changing – they made 10 changes to their line-up across four matches after losing their opening game to KKR by 10 runs.

Wriddhiman Saha played the first two encounters, which eventually turned out to be the only two he would play in the curtailed tournament. Acknowledging that failures are part and parcel of every cricketer, he exhorted teams to give their players a longer rope in order to emerge victorious in the long run.

“Any player can flop in a couple of matches. But if the line-up is being continuously changed, no team would be able to settle down. I would suggest, not only for SRH, but any side to pen down their best XI and play that line-up for four-five matches straight. If it’s not clicking then as well, then make the changes. In such a situation, the players will get ample opportunities to deliver and the team will also bear a settled look.

“But then, it was the management’s decision, we can’t do much about it. They told me before the MI game that I won’t be playing the match. But we didn’t have any discussion about trying me out in other positions. My chances again would have come depending on the performance of the team later in the tournament,” Wriddhiman Saha reasoned.

The thinktank comprising of Trevor Bayliss, Tom Moody and VVS Laxman made the headlines when they relieved talisman David Warner of captaincy duties, all of a sudden, after the sixth match. Warner coming out in public to express disapproval over dropping Manish Pandey after the first three games was alleged to be the catalyst behind the move.

Wriddhiman Saha, though, didn’t delve deeper into the speculation.

“It is completely up to the team management – a player can warm the bench after performing well and can even play all the games despite not performing at all. All these things depend on the team combination and what they think would be best for the team. We as players have no choice but to accept the changes – both exclusions and inclusions,” Wriddhiman Saha said.

Wriddhiman Saha has scored 8 runs off 15 deliveries so far in IPL 2021. Will we see the second half of the season? Will Saha find himself in favour with the team management, especially with regular openers Jonny Bairstow and Warner unlikely to get clearance to participate due to international commitments? Only time will tell.

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Accept the past, respect the present, hope for a better future

Wriddhiman Saha would be hoping against hope to make a mark on the upcoming UK tour

If you were Wriddhiman Saha, you’d be tearing your hair out now. He smashed 184 runs off just 122 balls across the final three league games of IPL 2020, before being ruled out with a hamstring tear ahead of the playoffs. Then came the Adelaide humiliation.

And when Wriddhiman Saha was finally back opening the batting for SRH, he was only given two chances before a virus confined him to a room for more than two weeks, even forcing the India team management to summon a backup for him for the forthcoming Test series.

When asked about the misfortune he has experienced of late, Wriddhiman Saha said he tries not to get affected by his performances on the field. He added that he never compromises on practice and always strives for improvement.

“I try to be the same irrespective of the situation. Whether I am performing or no, I don’t see any change in myself, no idea if others around me spot anything different. We can only try to perform – sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn’t – and the management takes the call based on all these parameters.

“Practice remains the same, irrespective of whether I am playing or not. I always try to improve, but yes, there is a huge gulf between a practice session and a professional match. It ultimately boils down to who delivers on the bigger stage,” Wriddhiman Saha added in this regard.

He has spoken fondly of his time with CSK when he got some invaluable advice from the great MS Dhoni. Does he still go back to him in such trying circumstances or does his current skipper – Dhoni’s successor – help him overcome the hurdles?

“Virat is in my team, so yeah I discuss cricket with him at times. As for Dhoni, it is so difficult to even catch a glimpse of him but Deep da [Dasgupta] and I keep waving at each other from a distance, from two separate bubbles,” Wriddhiman Saha, who has amassed 1,251 runs from 38 Tests, mentioned.

Making India’s limited-overs sides now look like a distant dream for Wriddhiman Saha, so it will be best for him to return from the UK and get back to the drawing board. Saha might have his eye on the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament in September, and if time permits the Ranji Trophy, which is slated to begin in December.

Wriddhiman Saha, though, is championing a bigger and noble cause. He once again insisted that postponing IPL 2021 was the correct decision, because it is no longer just about cricket.

“Before that, I want India and the rest of the world to recover from this pandemic. After that, if any opportunity comes, I would definitely want to play but before that I pray for the well-being of everybody,” he concluded.

On that note, we at Sportskeeda urge everyone to look at the bigger picture and come out in support of each other in these dire times. But don’t lower your own guard at any cost. Stay home, stay safe!